By 2018 Jeffrey Epstein’s social circle had shrunk from the grandiose heights of a few years earlier, when he regularly hobnobbed with former prime ministers, royalty and captains of industry. Many high-profile figures, such as Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, had distanced themselves from the financier who served 13 months in prison after being convicted in 2008 for soliciting under-age sex.
But one group of luminaries seemed happy to keep in close contact: academics. Epstein had long been fascinated by science and had befriended some of the world’s leading thinkers, including Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who proposed the concept of the quark and Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist. Epstein called himself a “science philanthropist” and donated more than $10m (£7.6m) to institutions such as MIT and Harvard University, where he had an office on campus.
An analysis of the 20,000 Epstein emails released by the US House oversight committee last week shows that several top intellectuals did not break with Epstein until 10 years after his 2008 conviction – and in some cases only ceased contact months before he was found dead in a prison cell in August 2019.
Elisa New, a professor of American literature at Harvard, recommended a book to Epstein with ‘similar themes to Lolita’
In November 2018, three days before the Miami Herald published a bombshell investigation into Epstein that led to his eventual arrest, Elisa New, a professor of American literature at Harvard, emailed him with a request. She wanted Epstein’s advice on how to persuade Serena Williams, the tennis superstar, to take part in her Poetry in America TV series.
But that was not the strangest aspect of her message. “I’m going upstairs to hunt for my copy of Lolita,” she told Epstein, according to an email transcript released by the committee. Lolita, the 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, details the protagonist’s sexual obsession with and abuse of a 12-year-old girl. Nabokov was reportedly Epstein’s favourite writer and he kept a copy of Lolita next to his bed. After interviewing Epstein for the New York Times in 2019, James B Stewart said the disgraced financier had argued that “criminalising sex with teenage girls was a cultural aberration and that at times in history it was perfectly acceptable”. In the email thread, Prof New also recommended a book to Epstein. “I would recommend reading My Antonia by Cather next time you’re on a long plane trip,” she wrote, in reference to the 1918 novel by the American author Willa Cather. “The book has … similar themes to Lolita in that it’s about a man whose whole life is stamped forever by his impression of a young girl.”
‘It really means a lot to me, all financial help aside, Jeffrey, that you are rooting for me and thinking about me’
Prof Elisa New
By this point it was widely publicised that Epstein had pleaded guilty to two prostitution charges, including procuring a minor for prostitution.
Other emails in the cache give clues as to why Prof New was so ready to engage with the convicted sex offender. In October 2014, she and Epstein discussed a potential $500,000 contribution to Poetry in America. It is not known if this was granted, but five months later, Prof New signed off another email saying: “It really means a lot to me, all financial help aside, Jeffrey, that you are rooting for me and thinking about me.”
Prof New is married to Larry Summers, the former Harvard president, who also maintained a close relationship with Epstein, in his case up until March 2019, according to the emails. Summers told the Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, last week: “I have great regrets in my life. As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.” In addition to supporting science directly, Epstein facilitated other big donations and developed links with charitable bodies such as the multi-billion-dollar Gates Foundation. Epstein met Bill Gates on a number of occasions to discuss philanthropy. In 2019, Gates’s spokesperson said he regretted ever meeting Epstein and recognised it was an error of judgment to do so.
The oversight committee emails include lewd messages sent to Epstein by Boris Nikolic, a physician and biotech investor academic and Gates’s chief science adviser between 2009 and 2014. In one dated January 2010, Nikolic stated that he was about to meet Prince Andrew in Davos. Epstein advised him that “you need to laugh and have fun, he is good at that”.
Nikolic then said: “It would be a blast that you are here. I was just flirting with 22 year old hot blond blue eyes mexican chick [sic]. It turns out she is with her husband. Did not have a chance to check him out. But as we concluded, anything good is rented :)”
A year later, Nikolic was instrumental in brokering a meeting between Epstein and Gates at Epstein’s townhouse in New York. They were joined by Dr Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former Miss Sweden. According to the New York Times, Gates met with Epstein on several occasions, including with Jes Staley, at the time a senior JP Morgan executive, and Nikolic. Contact between Nikolic and Epstein continued until at least August 2017, according to the emails.
Bill Gates and physician Boris Nikolic. Both met Epstein many times
Other prominent scientists mentioned in the emails include Lawrence Krauss, a Canadian-American theoretical physicist, who wrote to Epstein in 2017 asking for advice about how to handle allegations of sexual harassment, which he has always denied. Epstein was blunt: “did You have sex with her ),” he wrote. “? Condom ? Did she take it? I wouldn't respond. My advice is consistent. Off the record.”
That year, Epstein launched a campaign to rehabilitate his image centred around scientific philanthropy. He put Masha Drokova, his Russian-based PR representative, in touch with Martin Nowak, a professor of mathematics whose work on evolution Epstein had funded. In July, Drokova had a phone call with Nowak and later emailed Epstein about it. “Had a great conversation with Martin,” she said. “He loves you. What he said about you pretty much matches what I thought of you :)”.
Krauss told The Observer on Friday: “I have never hidden the fact that I knew Jeffrey Epstein and interacted with him on several occasions, usually to attend salons with interesting speakers, or scientific meetings. I sought out advice from essentially everyone I knew when false allegations about me were circulated in the press in 2018. As should be noted, none of the communications with Epstein relate in any way to the horrendous crimes he was accused of in 2019. I was as shocked as the rest of the world when he was arrested.”
None of the other scientists or academics responded to requests for comment.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations to Prof New’s charity first emerged in 2023, a spokesperson said that the organisation had made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organisations.
There is no suggestion that any of the scientists named in the released emails committed any wrongdoing, but many were happy to remain in contact with the financier even after the full scale of his crimes was becoming visible.
In December 2018, three weeks after the Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown tracked down more than 60 women who claimed to have been molested by Epstein from 2001 to 2006, the American evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers got in touch to discuss funding with the sex offender. “I hope everything is good in your life,” he wrote. “Warmest best, as always.”
Photographs by Rick Friedan/Alamy, Poetry in America, Paul Morigi/Getty Images